Magicka 2 hands-on: multiplayer mystic carnage

The first Magicka game was an unexpected hit in 2011, one that propelled publisher Paradox Interactive away from purely hardcore strategy titles into a slightly more inviting arena. Swedish developer Pieces Interactive is now working on the long-awaited sequel, which brings the multiplayer action-adventure to consoles. Wired.co.uk goes hands on with Magicka 2.

The new entry takes place after both the first game and the free-to-play Magicka:Wizard Wars, a civil war that left the faceless, hooded mages of Midgard either "loony or dead", according to producer Peter Cornelius.

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You'll play as one of the few survivors, set on a mission to save the world -- though whether the quest is legitimate is up for debate given you'll be working on behalf of Vlad, a villain from the first game.

Based loosely on Norse mythology, the original Magicka struck a chord with players thanks to its freeform magic system, where spells are created on the fly by combining elements and seeing what havoc unfurls. It rewarded creativity and experimentation, and required quick thinking to master its rapid gameplay that saw up to four players battling hordes of enemies. A fourth wall-nudging sense of humour poking fun at fantasy clichés and friendly fire that encouraged allies to turn on each other were both key to its appeal.

The first thing to note about this sequel is it doesn't reinvent the wheel. You'll still create spells in real time, stacking up to five of the eight different elements to various effect. Fire and Arcane results in a horrifically powerful attack, or lining up several Earth and Fire "nodes" unleashes a fireball, for instance.

Shields, Life, Lightning, Cold, and Water all add to the hundreds of mystic equations you can pull off, and with the exception of opposing elements cancelling each other out, there's almost no limit.

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Magicka 2 mixes things up with deeper levels of customisation. As well as robes and staffs that affect stats and abilities, newly introduced Artifacts can have huge impacts on the rules of the game itself, such as letting you modify the rules of the game to suit your play style, increasing or decreasing enemy health to affect overall difficulty. Others are there for comedic effect, such as the Sitcom Artifact (adding a studio laugh track and applause to your actions) or Bobblehead, which adds an old-school big head mode. This last one actually came about by accident, with Cornelius saying "We had this bug one morning, and we were kind of freaking out because it made everyone into these floaty little ball-persons. We were discussing how to get rid of this but then said 'No, it looks good like this, let's keep it!' So we made it an artifact."

The bigger changes are under the hood, so to speak. Magicka 2 recreates the world from the ground up in the Bitsquid engine, and while it retains the same top-down perspective, the environments are bigger and more dynamic. Players can be knocked of cliffs, or enhance attacks using their surroundings. Attracting enemies through wet areas, then frying them with lightning spells for added damage is great fun. Pieces Interactive has also introduced a better scaling system, so gamers playing solo get a managable level of enemies to fight, whereas a full team of four will be almost swarmed and require teamwork to overcome the threat. There is also a fairer learning curve than in its predecessor, with the new game getting players to grips with its systems in a swift but comprehensive manner.

With Magicka 2 coming to PlayStation 4, it's also allowed the creators to put controller support at the heart of the game, something that had been in the works even before the first game's release. "Magicka was planned out and shown as a gamepad game, so we're kind of returning to the original idea," says Cornelius. "Some players have come to think of us as a mouse-and-keyboard game. I would personally not go back to that control scheme."

Using a controller for Magicka 2 makes the experience smoother and faster than ever before. It feels almost like a twin-stick shooter, guiding your mage around the screen with the left stick while targetting your magic with the right. The eight elements are mapped to the four face buttons, with a tap of the right shoulder button letting you switch between each half-set.

Queue up the spell you want to try and pull the right trigger, and the fireworks fly -- sometimes literally. It's snappy and intuitive, and we can't imagine going back to a mouse-and-keyboard for the game either, now.

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Other, seemingly small changes prove to have a big impact too, such as the ability to run and heal at the same time, or restore health and durability to shields you may have created, extending their functionality. There's no longer a go-to spell you'll keep using either, as the variety of foes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, force you to mix things up. Magical familiars can be shared by the party, small virtual pets which apply buffs and enhancements to the whole team.

Lastly, boss fights have been overhauled, with even bigger and more powerful opponents that dominate the screen. The colossal ogre we fought was a real beast, killing mages with a single blow from his club. In these encounters, the rapid pace of Magicka 2 means you'll want to pay even closer attention to your allies' actions too, to try to predict and combine spells at a moment's notice.

It all adds a thrilling new feel to the experience, with greater scale to the combat and greater feeling of impact on the world around you. Most importantly, the humour remains on point, with more than a few LOL-worthy digs at players and the developers alike. The only drawback we encountered was that aiming your spells wasn't quite as immediate as we'd like, something Cornelius acknowledged was being looked at ahead of Magicka 2's final release. Currently slated for the first half of 2015, there's plenty of time for Pieces Interactive to iron out the kinks, so all players need to be concerned with is exactly how much damage they can cause. The answer, so far, is LOTS.